The Playboy Club is canceled because of fear of female empowerment, and also low ratings

Bob Greenblatt giveth, and Bob Greenblatt taketh stilted ’60s dioramas away: NBC has canceled the low-rated The Playboy Club, ending a stay of mercy that had allowed the drama series to continue airing despite losing viewers faster than a waitress who dresses up in revealing outfits sheds the shackles of our patriarchal society. By its third episode, the show had dropped to a 1.2 rating share—and of course, appeared so wounded and staggering that the Parents Television Council swarmed in for the kill by calling to take away its processed cheeses and P.F. Chang’s. After a few weeks of filling its slot with Prime Suspect repeats, NBC plans to replace The Playboy Club beginning Oct. 31 with the new Rock Center With Brian Williams, a “smart, original, and occasionally irreverent” newsmagazine show in which the anchor will, ironically, spend most of his time relentlessly sexually degrading women.